This programme is designed for those who wish to explore cross-cultural issues and join the dialogue between distinct philosophical traditions.
The Master of Philosophy focuses on compared philosophies, which considers the ideas and ways of thinking from different cultures in order to deepen mutual understanding and to discover new ways of solving problems. In the first year, students learn academic writing and research methods as well as how to reflect on different approaches to issues of ethics, aesthetics and theories of knowledge and interpretation. In the second year, students continue to deepen their knowledge and skills through research seminars and prepare a dissertation using cross-cultural philosophical methodologies.
The programme coordinator is Edmond Eh.
During the two years of evening course work, Master of Philosophy students hold full-time student status.
A Master of Philosophy with specialisation in Comparative Philosophy demonstrates to a prospective employer in any field an applicant’s capacity to reason well and analyse complex issues as well as enhanced understanding, communication and writing skills. This will strengthen the applications of those pursuing careers in fields such as business, economics, law, medicine, publishing, and community leadership.
- Modular delivery, with coursework modules taught one at a time, in sequence
- Identification of philosophical problems in historical, social and cultural contexts
- Students learn to:
- apply critical thinking and analytical skills to a set of philosophical issues
- cherish a constructive dialogue with the rich philosophical traditions of East and West
- organise and pursue original and independent research projects
- prepare and deliver high quality presentations
Study plan & description of modules
Please click on any specific module to see its description.
Modules
Year 1
Academic English Writing is a required module for students enrolled in the master program in Philosophy. It is designed to explore academic writing processes and strategies in the target language (English) and includes general lessons on genre-specific, topic proposal and thesis/dissertation writing. Those enrolled are expected to comply with and submit requirements that display writing and language proficiency befitting of students in a post-graduate program.
This course aims at discussing what are usually two different philosophical areas. While epistemology is the study of knowledge and tries to answer questions such as “ how do we know what we know?”, ethics is seen as a source of external constraints on different domains of epistemic activity. Thus, this module will give a survey on central issues in contemporary epistemology as well as offer an overview of topics in ethics such as ethical commitments and responsability of choices. Finally, it will try to answer questions such as how can ethical commitments function as an aspect of the epistemic process? to what extent do ethical commitments pertain to the choices that held us epistemically responsible?
This course offers students to examine and discuss different areas of philosophy: theoretical which covers subjects such as metaphysics/ontology, philosophy of mind, logic, philosophy of language, epistemology; and practical with the study of axiology, political philosophy, ontology and philosophy of action. The aim of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the current debates in philosophy.
The aim of this course is to give a comprehensive and intercultural understanding of hermeneutics as well as a methodological foundation for research in cross-cultural philosophy. It intends to examine and discuss the philosophical borrowings from one cuture to another through the study of the most important thinkers.
What is comparative philosophy? How to compare? These are some of the questions we will try to answer. The course aims at exploring important issues and concepts in the context of different cultures. Intellectual, historical and cultural background of philosophers will be studied. Thinkers of very different cultural traditions will be compared and discussed.
Comparative ethics is often considered as equivalent to descriptive ethics. In this course we will explore, on the one hand, the descriptive approach to the study of ethics in different parts of the world. On the other hand, the relation between phenomenology and ethics will be explored from the perspective of methodology (phenomenological description) and in the ethical phenomenology of thinkers such as Max Scheler and Emmanuel Levinas. Lastly, this course will consider the possible impact of comparative ethics on normative and applied ethics in a pluralistic society.
This course explores the field of comparative or intercultural aesthetics. Besides studying the latest issues in the comparing the philosophy of beauty and art of different cultures, we will also investigate the artistic cross-fertilisation between cultures, and look into some of the contemporary issues in comparative aesthetics. Focus will be on Chinese, Japanese and Indian aesthetics, and the rethinking of the East-West dichotomy in aesthetics.
This advanced research module intends to help student to reflect on what philosophy is. It emphasises analysis, criticism and argumentation on selected philosophical issues related to the nature of philosophical enquiry. It aims at providing students the required skills to pursue independent research.
This course is introducing students to Compared Philosophies with special emphasis on East-Asian philosophy through texts of Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism, Hinduism. Those schools of thoughts will be explored by students who will study topics such as ethics, reality, knowledge, self, among others.
Year 2
After completion of one year of full-time study, writing and defending a dissertation is the culmination of the programme. The dissertation should be on a specific topic or issue showing the student’s capability for analysis, criticism and argumentation. It should demonstrate that students can lay out a series of clear and sustained arguments for some conclusion. Each student will be supervised by a faculty member with the relevant expertise.
